There has been plenty discussion of weird fiction recently as “True Detective” ruled TV and social media as the show also included overt references to Robert Chambers’story anthology“The King in Yellow.” Here’s a look at some essential works from a very broad genre:

“At the Mountains of Madness” (1936) by H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft is widely considered the king of weird fiction, although he once called himself an “insignificant amateur” compared to greats such as Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Machen. Okay, so what is weird fiction anyway? In his seminal essay, “Notes on Writing Weird Fiction,” Lovecraft writes:

These stories frequently emphasise the element of horror because fear is our deepest and strongest emotion, and the one which best lends itself to the creation of nature-defying illusions. Horror and the unknown or the strange are always closely connected, so that it is hard to create a convincing picture of shattered natural law or cosmic alienage or “outsideness” without laying stress on the emotion of fear.

“At the Mountains of Madness,” his novella about a scientific expedition to Antarctica gone terribly wrong, certainly emphasizes the “element of horror” as the protagonists discover an awful truth about humanity’s origins. There are monsters to go along with the dread-laden atmosphere, and the book was a big influence on movies such as John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus.”

“The Conspiracy Against the Human Race” (2010) by Thomas Ligotti

This is considered a nonfiction book, so let’s broaden the genre name to “weird literature.” Ligotti has written plenty of weird fiction and horror stories — including his most recent collection, “The Spectral Link” — but “Conspiracy” sums up the pessimistic and anti-natalist ideas that inform his work and his personal worldview. To Ligotti, the human race is an evolutionary accident and consciousness is the parent of horrors. It’s a gripping and frightening read in its own right — one that was recently taught alongside “At the Mountains of Madness” in a course at California’s Carleton College — and it’s no dry philosophical tract. Consider it more of a personal journey through horror.

H.P. Lovecraft

Everett Collection

“The Great God Pan” (1890) by Arthur Machen

Stephen Kingcalled this tale by Welsh writer Machen “one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language.” Machen taps into all sorts of fears and repulsion in “The Great God Pan,” from the anxiety over opening one’s mind to broader — and more terrifying — knowledge, to intimate, even brutal, body horrors. Mythology, science, sexual terror, experimental surgery, communion with supernatural entities beyond our ken … it meets all your weird horror needs.

“The Masque of the Red Death” (1840s) by Edgar Allan Poe

The weird fiction lineage is often traced back to Poe, who is considered one of America’s finest writers and whose work is widely taught in literature classes. That’s a rare distinction for a horror writer, but it’s because of his mastery of language to conjure the kind of uncanny atmosphere necessary to chill you to your heart. In this story — you likely read it back in school, but it’s worth revisiting — Poe invites us to a strange party where death itself will ultimately make a grand entrance in human form, or something like it.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” (1890s) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Another staple of college and high school literature classes, this story is often considered a classic of feminist fiction. But make no mistake, this is a weird tale through and through. Its protagonist, a woman named Jane, or so we think, chronicles her descent into madness — first-person chronicles and madness both being staples of the weird fiction drama — as things take a turn into the uncanny. Again, atmosphere is as much a key to the story’s success as is the unhinged writing of the narrator. Until the Coen brothers film “Barton Fink” came along a hundred years later, wallpaper was never so haunting and horrible.